Thoughts on Indy preseason game

I disagree with all those fantasy “experts” who say Donald Driver is going to be weaker this year. I just see no slowing down with this guy. Does any Packer better embody what it means to be a Packer? I just love the guy and he’s still playing at a high level.

For the first time in a long time, our 2nd, 3rd and 4th string offenses (at least, and also defenses to some extent I suppose) looked like they really knew what they were doing. I just got the feeling watching them that we may finally have established a quality overall system of both consistent incoming talent and a workable overall coaching scheme. To have the 3rd string offense come in and tear up the field was just odd to see in a preseason game. Usually 3rd string play is fraught with constant penalties and mental errors. Mike McCarthy had the whole team prepared to play last night (except the make-shift first team defense).

Graham Harrell threw some bullets and overall looked quite strong. Tough decision cut-wise after how he played last night.

I’m comfortable with Flynn as the #2. He’s good. He does seem to struggle with any throws over 25 yards or so, but he had some great throws on plays requiring shorter throws.

Still don’t know what they are doing with Hawk, Poppinga, now Zombo, Chillar, etc in the preseason LB rotation. Not sure if this is all more audition time or what (I’m guessing this is the case), but for a long time in the beginning of the game, our line-up had 5 DBs, Zombo and Poppinga as OLBs, Chillar and Barnett as MLBs and Raji and Pickett manning the middle on the D-Line. It will be interesting to see where all the pieces fall into place once everyone is healthy.

James Jones should get more opportunities this year – I hope. With enough opportunities, I do think Jones could end up making a name for himself as one of those WRs that DBs don’t like to tackle. I have visions for him of Sterling Sharpe-drag-DBs-down-the-field type plays.

Still feeling like our RB situation isn’t bad – but that it could be better.

Quinn Johnson makes some punishing blocks but he still doesn’t seem quite as polished as Hall or Kuhn. Between QB (keep 2-3 guys?), FB (keep 2-3 guys?), TE and LB there will be some tough decisions. I can actually see the Pack keeping 3FBs again and only 2 RBs on the active roster – perhaps keeping Quinn Porter on the practice squad.

Morgan Burnett had some awkward angles on tackles at time (missing 1-2 by my unofficial count), but his read on Manning for the INT was sweet. He moved a tiny bit inside leading Manning to assume he was going to run with the inside WR and then quickly stepped into the other passing lane for a very easy pick. Manning doesn’t throw them that easy – leading me to believe it was more of a nice play by Burnett than a poor play by Manning.

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9 Responses to “Thoughts on Indy preseason game”

I said this in the other thread, but it bears repeating: the 1st-string defense looked pretty awful last night. The Colts marched down the field for a score on 3 of their first 4 drives. All too reminiscent of the playoff game last year when the Pack found themselves down 17-0 before they could get started.

Hard to know what else to take away from this game. For whatever reason, the Colts just started coming to pieces about mid-way through the 2nd quarter. (That delay-of-game penalty right before the half when the Packers were scrambling to get a play off was particularly idiotic).

I feel a whole lot better about Flynn being the #2 QB than I did last year. Actually, I felt better about him last week, too. I think our offense will be hard to stop this season. I’m scared about our frist team defense. I know that all the starters have not played together, but they haven’t inspired a lot of confidence for me. I love how hard the guys on the bubble play. Zombo may have played himself onto a roster spot.

I think they may want to trade (assuming they can) Donald Lee. I cannot see them keeping 5 TEs but I don’t want them cutting any of the others. Crabtree I believe is rapidly proving himself worthy of a roster spot. He’s shown he can catch and he’s proving to be a very effective blocker. His blocking will help our running game, making our offense more balanced. Lee is expensive and he’s in his last contract year (I believe).

If we hadn’t drafted Quarless this wouldn’t be an issue. I think the staff is going to have a tough time deciding who stays at the TE spot. I think the decision gets easier if they can deal Lee.

The Bear’s offensive line is in the weak link. Williams at LT was beat a couple times and he going to play a bunch of quality DE’s and OLB this year. Their RT Omiyale looked awful again last night as he did against Oakland. He was a marginal LG last year and I guess they thought he is a better RT but I think he is their version of Barbre this year. And, looking at their roster I don’t anyone of quality backing up either player. Cutler will get poor protection all year and will throw a ton of INT’s just like last night. They will have their moments have they have weapons but I think they will be a high turnover offense and struggle all year putting up more then 20 points a game.

I think some deals will get done this week. Teams can wait to make waiver claims but a lot of GM’s will throw away a 6th round pick to avoid losing a guy on the waiver wire.

Rodgers is ridiculous. Finley is unstoppable, especially when split out wide, and the running game has been just good enough to respect it. The offense looks pretty good if you ask me.

The defense troubles me. They have not played with their true first string all together yet, but they are giving up pass plays too easily for my liking. We’ll see how they look this weekend and hope they can outscore Philly in Week 1…..

Marshall Newhouse is a BIG man, he seems like a perfect “project” type for the OL depth. I hope he sticks around.

Mike Neal looks ready to contribute in the DL rotation, which ought to help replace Jolly somewhat. Would be great if Harrell could also contribute 15-20 effective snaps a game.

I agree with the observations above about G. Harrell, I have a feeling he will help someone in this league eventually. He was very good against top competition at Texas Tech, if he is given time to sit and learn I think he can be an acceptable starting QB some day.

Zombo, Shields and Chery all need to be on this team. Brett Swain has done nothing to merit keeping him over Chery.

I am starting to change my mind about Colledge. maybe all of the switching positions really was to blame. He has looked very solid at LG so far.

Kick coverage has been noticeably better and there have been far less stupid penalties throughout the preseason. if those two things continue this team gives itself that many more chances to win.

All in all, my feeling now is that if the D can get merely get 2 stops per half this offense will do enough to win a lot of games, but in order to go far the tackling and coverage has to get a lot better. We still haven’t seen the entire D play together yet so I’m optimistic that their true identity is more like the 2nd quarter against Indy then it is the 1st three drives against Indy.